


High Hopes

by R5h



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:49:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21938500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R5h/pseuds/R5h
Summary: Avery wants to become the most famous celebrity ever. That's theonlyreason she's going on a plane ride to study Akko Kagari, the world'scurrentmost famous celebrity. No ulterior motives whatsoever.(You keep telling yourself that.)
Relationships: Avery/Atsuko "Akko" Kagari
Comments: 18
Kudos: 45





	High Hopes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [p4ntry_d3m0n](https://archiveofourown.org/users/p4ntry_d3m0n/gifts).



All the little steps were logical, of course. It was the sum of those logical steps that was causing Avery some problems.

Obviously, Avery wanted to be the most popular rock star witch who had ever lived. The most beloved worldwide. And if she wanted to do that, then in much the same way as learning magic involved studying the work of the greats who came before, Avery would have to study the most popular witches of today. Perfectly reasonable.

And if she wanted to study the most popular witches of today, then like it or not, there was no better choice than Akko Kagari. She and Diana Cavendish had appeared on just about every screen in the world, and they'd become celebrities overnight—but Diana, as popular as she was, wasn't a born media darling in the way Akko was. She'd retreated to her mansion for summer vacation, but Akko was out and about, and the paparazzi ate her up. So yes, obviously Akko was the best choice. Eminently sensible.

And since it was summer break, and Akko was back in her home country of Japan, it would make the most sense to go and study her there. Entirely obvious!

Avery repeated those three steps in her head until they made sense. And then she looked at the plane ticket clutched in her hand, and the idea of sense flew out the window. Somehow those _sensible_ steps had added up to a logical leap which would land her halfway around the world.

“Stupid Akko,” she muttered to herself, trudging through the boarding line. “Stupid Japan, stupid leylines not being near Japan, stupid brooms not being able to fly me there. Stupid, stupid, _stupid!_ _What are you looking at!?_ ” she yelled at some punk who was staring at her.

The punk in question gulped, took her ticket, and scanned it through. “H-have a nice flight, ma'am,” he said.

Avery growled and proceeded down the walkway to her first class seat.

It wasn't like the irony was lost on her. She'd seen Akko before the first day of school, before even reaching Luna Nova, and Avery had written her off as hopeless in person. And yes, she had been pretty useless, but _hopeless_ had apparently been the wrong word: she'd had hopes as high as Everest, and had bleated them to anyone within hearing range.

Which would have been fine, except she'd gone and _achieved_ them like some kind of weirdo. And now she was the most famous witch in the world, and you could get several kazillion views on WitchTube by taking blurry video of her through a window.

Not that Avery had tried. That would be weird. And dumb.

( _Stupid lens cap why hadn't she remembered to take it off_ )

Avery sank back into her plush first class seat, groaning under her breath. The sad fact of the matter was, Akko would be the one looking down on her this time. Akko was the elite, and Avery was the loser. So it was hardly as if Avery could go asking her for advice. She'd need a more... subtle approach.

* * *

“If you get arrested for stalking, I'm not bailing you out,” Mary said.

“What?” Avery squinted, from skepticism as well as exhaustion. She'd spent a rather lengthy period of time recovering from jet lag in her hotel room, on the outskirts of Tokyo. Now, she was on the bed in a video chat with Mary and Blair, who could _really_ stand to be more supportive _thank you very much_. “It's not stalking!”

Mary leaned closer to the webcam on her end, so that her face filled up the screen of Avery's phone, which Avery was holding at arm's length as she lay on the bed. “And what is it instead?”

“I'm just finding out where Akko is, going there, and following everything she does from a distance so she doesn't notice me!”

“Oh, right!” Mary snapped her fingers. “I know the word for that. It's _stalking_.”

“Ugh. Uuuuuuuuuugh.” Avery raised her head, so she could smack it back against the pillow. Several times. Once she'd worked that out, she stared up at the phone and said, “Look, it's not like I'll be able to do any 'stalking'—” she let go of the phone with one hand to make air quotes “—as long as I don't know where she _is!_ All I know is that she's somewhere in the Greater Tokyo Area, and there's like forty million people in it!”

Blair pushed her way into the frame, preceded by her dirty blonde drill-ponytails. “So why'd you even go?” she asked. “You're never gonna pull it off.”

“If I agree to that, then it'll _definitely_ be true!” Avery rolled back, bringing her legs up above her, only so she could slam them down and kip up onto the mattress. “If I give up now, then the world will _never_ know the name of Avery Malcolm! And if Akko Kagari can revive magic, then I can find her to learn how she pulled it off! And I _will_ do it!” she shouted into the phone.

Blair and Mary looked at her. Then looked at each other, then back at her again.

Avery slapped the phone down on a stand and clasped her hands in supplication. “But I have _zero_ ideas of how to do that and I _cannot_ read Japanese so I _don't_ know how to look her up, so would you please help me, _please please please?_ ”

“Um....” Blair sucked in a breath through her teeth. “Okay, so I know this is important to you, so I did some asking around. Do you know Lotte Jansson?”

“The Nightfall megafan who talks to ghosts?”

“Yeah, the normal one on Red Team.”

Avery blinked. Then gasped. “Of course! She knows where Akko lives and she told you! Blair, your genius rivals even my own!”

“Yeah, um... about that. She _did_ tell me.” Blair frowned. “And told me I could tell you, but that you are, in her words, 'absolutely and totally forbidden from putting Akko through any trouble, since she's having enough difficulty dealing with paparazzi'. If you mess things up, she said she’d have to enforce consequences.”

“Oh, what's she gonna do? Quote Nightfall at me?”

“She said she would tell Sucy Manbavaran.”

The silence of the grave hung in the air for a few seconds.

“Well,” Mary said, matter-of-factly. “That is terrifying.”

Avery flapped her hand in front of the screen. “Who cares if it's terrifying?” ( _Me!_ said the voice in her head. _I care if it's terrifying! And it is! It really really is!_ ) “You have the address! I accept that death penalty, so send it over to me!”

“All right, all right, on your own head be it.” Blair pulled her phone out of her pocket and started tapping the screen. “Sending it over... _now._ ”

A few seconds later, the notification on her phone showed up, and Avery jumped to her feet. “Yes! Thank you, Blair!” She leaped off the bed, leaving the phone propped on its stand. “Now I'm going to find her and I'm going to see what makes her so amazing, and _nothing_ will go wrong!”

Mary let out a hiss of breath. “In the movie making business, we call that _foreshadowing_.”

“Yes!” Avery pointed dramatically out at a new horizon—at least, where a new horizon would be, if the limiting hotel room wasn't in the way. “Foreshadowing of my incredible success!”

In her peripheral vision, and wearing a pained grimace, Mary slowly shook her head.

* * *

Her phone's map-app had just gotten an update for brooms, which meant that Avery could use it to plot her course to Akko's house the next morning. There was a fair amount of air traffic, more than she was used to—but then again, she was in one of the most densely populated places in the world, and a bunch of people had just gotten access to magic who'd never had it before.

With all that, it took her about an hour to reach the location the next morning.

The building where Akko lived was... look, if Avery wanted to learn anything from Akko, she would probably have to be a little kind, a little more willing than usual to withhold judgment. So she wouldn't say _out loud_ that the house, or more accurately the apartment block, looked like a _dump_.

Seriously, though! Would it kill them to use any other shade for the exterior than rainy-day gray? And ugh, the balconies on the outside might have been meant to add some livability, but the bars on them just made her think of _prison_. Surely someone as famous as Akko could do better than _this_ , right? Surely someone as famous as Akko _deserved_ better?

Avery surveyed the building from the air for about a minute, fixed in place by the force of her increasing disdain, before she shook herself and flew on. She obviously couldn't do anything dumb like walk up to the front door and buzz Akko's apartment. She'd have to do a more _sensible_ thing, like hide in a nearby tree and wait for hours until Akko came out.

It was a perfectly sound plan, she decided, flying straight at the closest cherry blossom tree. However, as she tried to land in it, she found that there was one big problem—

“Hey! Watch it, witch girl! You just landed on my head!”

She wasn't the only person to have had the idea.

“ _What?_ ” she said, looking down and around her. Now that she was past the veil of cherry blossoms, she could see an _entire camera crew_ packed into various corners between the branches and the trunk. The logo on one person's microphone read CNN, which explained the use of the English language, so that was nice.

 _Less_ nice was the way that every single one of those adults was looking at her. “Buzz off, kid!” one of the cameramen said. “This is _our_ tree! We got here first!”

“No, wait!” said the microphone guy, probably the news anchor. Correspondent? Person in charge of talking? Whoever he was, the newsman looked excitedly at her. “You've got a broom, so you're a witch, right? Do you know Atsuko Kagari?”

She sneered. “What, so _all_ witches know each other? That's... witchist.” Was that the word? Was it even a word at all? She gritted her teeth.

“We've got a standing two thousand dollar bounty for witches who know Atsuko Kagari.”

“Oh! Yeah, we're best friends. Blood sisters till the day we die. Did you say two _thousand?_ ”

“Of course!” The newsman leaned closer, his smile predatory. “All you need to do is walk up to her door, buzz up to her apartment, let her know a good friend of hers is downstairs, get her to come down, and then we can do the rest. It's easy money!”

As Avery opened her mouth, a vision flashed in her mind: herself, spread-eagled upon a table, with Sucy in a cultist's robes pouring the most horrific potion imaginable into her freshly opened chest cavity. “Ahhhhhh,” she said, trying not to think about her flesh melting off _Raiders_ -style, “when I say _best_ friends, I might be slightly exaggerating a _little_. We're... decent chums?”

The newsman rolled his eyes. “I understand if a measly _two thousand_ doesn't feel like enough. But if you like, we'd be able to interview you as well. How'd you like to have your name in the papers, miss...?” He motioned with his hand after a second, fishing for a name.

“Well, my name is—”

And Avery stopped, because there was motion faintly visible through the tree. She leaned forward to get a better look, and sucked in a breath through her nose: someone was walking out of the apartment block.

“Is that her?” one of the cameramen said. “I can't get a good look.”

“Oh, come on, of course it's her!” another snapped back. “Who _else_ would be wearing a parka, sunglasses, and face mask in the middle of _June?_ ”

The newsman snorted and withdrew his hand. “Sorry, miss, looks like you missed your chance. Let's get a move on, gentlemen!” And his crew dropped from the tree and rushed at Akko. “Miss Kagari!” he called out. “A word, please!”

And _they weren't alone_. All around her, in every tree and bush, some news agent or paparazzo or plain-old _lookyloo_ was bursting out like a locust, and swarming toward the girl. And yes, as Avery peered closer, it was pretty clearly Akko: she could see a hint of the girl's distinctive hairstyle peeking outside the parka, and the height seemed right.

But Akko didn't look happy. She jumped as the CNN guy called her name, and she stared in his direction, and then she sort of... slumped. She looked defeated in a way that Avery had never really seen. How many times had she been ambushed like this, just this summer?

(And the little voice said, in its most insistent tone: this is _wrong_.)

“ _Tia Freyre_ ,” Avery hissed, and jumped out of the tree into a low dive. In a few seconds, outpacing all of the newscasters, she had swooped down to Akko's side. “Jump on behind me, Akko!” she said, touching her broom down.

“Uh— _Avery?_ ”

“Do you want the ride or _not?_ ”

Akko didn't waste time getting on, and with another kick, Avery was airborne, just as the newscasters reached them. “Nice try, suckers!” she called out, rising fast. “And don't hide in trees to wait for people! It's _creepy!_ ”

The flashes of cameras and the hubbub of unanswered questions was soon nothing more than a memory, as Avery and Akko flew away.

* * *

“So why don't you just use _your_ broom?”

Akko had directed them to a nearby café. Avery, using the logic that a flying broom might be easy to track, had landed them at a bike shop near that, at which point they’d walked to the café. So now they were sharing a table in the furthest corner of this shop, away from any windows, and Avery was watching the savior of magic try to fold herself up into her parka.

“Seriously,” Avery continued, taking a long sip of this... _boba_ thing that Akko had gotten her as thanks. She enjoyed the tea, and felt so-so about the many spheres at the bottom, which she assumed had to be the bobas. “You're a witch. Just use the broom. Or, like, make yourself invisible or use magic to make a distraction or something.”

Akko groaned. “I can't actually fly _that_ well yet. And if a bunch of reporters see me fall flat on my face....”

“Oh.”

“ _Ohhhhhh._ ” Akko slumped forward, her head landing on the table. “At least when I screwed up at Luna Nova, I didn't have to deal with the _world_ making fun of me,” she said, her voice muffled. “It was just Hannah and Barbara... and you, actually,” she added, looking up at Avery, her eyes just visible over her sunglasses. “Actually, why are you here?”

Ah. A smile froze on Avery's face, and she tried frantically to come up with an explanation for why she was here, arguably putting Akko through trouble. “Please don't tell Sucy,” she squeaked out, which was not a great start to be honest.

Akko frowned at her. “Why would I do that?” she said, pulling her sunglasses off at last. “Or... why _shouldn't_ I? I'm confused.”

“Well, um, the thing is, you see—”

And then the answer struck her. It was beautiful in its simplicity, yet simple in its beauty. No one else could ever have come up with something so singularly _brilliant_.

She slammed her arms on the table, looked Akko dead in the eye, and said, “I'm your _bodyguard_.”

Akko glanced from side to side. “Whah?” (And the little voice in Avery's head agreed: _What!?_ )

“Yes! Your bodyguard!” _This is a terrible idea!_ “It’s a perfect idea! You see,” she said, saying the first words that popped into her head, as if clicking the autocomplete on a phone over and over to see what happened, “as... penance! For the times I was mean to you in Luna Nova, and so that you don't hate me, I have decided to... look after you during summer break! To keep those crazy _stalkers_ away from you!”

“Is it really stalking?” Akko asked.

“They're finding where you live, hiding there, and trying to follow everything you do. That's stalking!” ( _Oh, you ridiculous hypocrite._ ) “You deserve better than that, so for the next few months, I'm gonna be making sure you _get_ better than that.” Baring her teeth in a grin, Avery stuck her hand out. “What do you say, friend?”

Akko frowned, or at least Avery assumed she was frowning: the face mask was still on. In any case, she seemed to be taking her time considering the offer, which was a bit odd: since when had Akko taken time considering anything? But at last, as Avery was feeling her outstretched hand sagging, Akko reached out and shook it.

“All right!” Avery said, shaking her hand hard enough to bang the table and rock it. “You won't regret this!” And neither would Avery, she knew: this was a perfect chance to actually observe Akko up close and personal! A perfect plan!

( _A terrible plan._ )

“So,” Avery said, letting go of Akko. “What do you want to do first, new... uh, bodyguardee? What do I even call you,” she muttered.

“Mmm....” Akko tilted her head to the side. “Is the word Master, maybe?”

“Under no circumstances am I ever calling you that.”

“Fiiiiine.” Akko rolled her eyes and muttered something in, presumably, Japanese. “Anyway, what I wanna do _first_ is....”

* * *

“ _Wheeee!_ ” Akko yelled, her arms up as she rode the 'roller coaster'.

It wasn't actually a roller coaster by any definition Avery would entertain: its track was tiny and circular and the only other people on it were twelve, tops. And it was hardly as if this amusement park didn't have other options, either!

But Akko was having fun, so whatever. Avery watched her dispassionately from the nearby fence that kept watchers at a distance.

“ _Ne, ne!_ ” someone said near her, and she turned to see a young boy tugging excitedly on his mother's sleeve, then pointing directly at Avery's _client_ —which was the word Avery had come up with after much thought. “ _Kagari Akko desu ka?_ ” It made sense that he'd ask: Akko had shed her parka, sunglasses, and mask. But what it also meant was that it was time for Avery to go to work.

Avery smiled, and bent down to look at the boy, and recited the sequence of syllables Akko had taught her. She didn't know what each word meant, but collectively, it came out to something like: _My friend looks like Akko Kagari, but it's not her. Please don't bother her._

“ _Oh!_ ” The woman bowed her head. “ _Sumimasen_.” Then she turned around and, saying words to her kid that were presumably along the lines of scolding, she led him away from the fence.

Avery smirked. This Japanese stuff was easy once she got the hang of it.

Her attention returned to her client... or, to use another word for Akko, her _subject_. Akko was enjoying herself as utterly as if this were the first roller coaster ride she'd ever ridden on, when in fact the twists and turns of the track were less exciting than what you'd get on a broom trip to the convenience store. What was Avery supposed to make of that?

She pursed her lips, pulled out her phone, and brought up the note-taking app. _Enthusiasm for every part of life, no matter how boring_ , she tapped down... then shook her head and erased it. She'd tried writing about a dozen entries so far, and every one had ended up on what Mary would call the cutting room floor: the note app was still blank.

What was the _deal_ with Akko Kagari?

( _You know what the deal is with her_ , said the little voice.)

“Look,” she muttered, “if this is how you're gonna be, why'd you even bother coming?”

At last the ride finished, and Akko rushed off. “I wanna go again!”

Avery grimaced. “I feel like three times was probably enough. Do you want to maybe do something more... exciting?”

“Ugh, _fine_.”

Despite the petulance of her response, Akko turned away from the ride and started skipping along to whatever her next destination was. Avery, the dutiful bodyguard, followed alongside. “Seriously,” Avery said, “was that really as much fun as you acted like?”

“I dunno, maybe?” Akko beamed, somehow contriving to skip slowly so that she and Avery kept pace. “I mean, it's always been my favorite ride here.”

“Why?”

“Because I always used to figure it was what riding a broom would feel like.”

Avery blinked. “Oh. And... is it?”

“Well, the ride's never crashed while I've been on it, so not _that_ much.”

Avery snorted. And then she caught herself and reined her emotions back in, letting the logical side take over as she tried to analyze Akko's skips. It was the darndest thing: she knew what she was here to do, but spending time with Akko made it so easy to just... _be_. To just talk and act without thinking or worrying about getting other people to like you, because _this_ person already did.

What a ridiculous idea. Avery needed _everyone_ to like her. That was how fame worked!

The flash of a camera caught her attention, and Avery's head whipped around. “Hey!” she yelled. “Delete that picture!” She was just in time to see someone slipping a phone back into their pocket, but before she could make out any distinguishing features, they'd slipped into the crowd and vanished. “Ugh.”

Akko's skip switched down a gear, leaving her walking. “It's okay,” she sighed. “As long as it's not everyone at once.”

“Oh, _fine_.” Avery grumbled under her breath. “Still, I guess this is what you wanted, right?”

“Mm?”

“You know, your dream or whatever?”

“Being this famous... wasn't exactly my dream.”

Avery shot her a look. “Akko, I'm a person who's existed in your vicinity for five seconds at a time. Ergo, I _know_ your dream was to be like Shiny Chariot. IE, like a world-famous entertainer. IE, people _recognize_ you wherever you go!”

“Okay, I mean, yes!” Akko threw up her hands. “But the point wasn't the fame! It was to make people happy! And I'm really glad I've managed to do _that_ part, but....”

“But _what?_ ” Avery grabbed Akko's shoulders. “You could sell out _stadiums!_ You're probably gonna be booked for the Olympic opening ceremony! You can do all that, and—I understand that you don't wanna be harassed,” she said, leaning forward, “that makes perfect sense, but you don't care about the fame at _all?_ ”

Akko shook her head.

“Ridiculous.” Avery released her and kept walking. “It's like if the tallest person on Earth didn't wanna play basketball.”

A few seconds later, Akko caught back up with her. “The tallest person on Earth _doesn't_ want to play basketball,” she said, peering at Avery. “I looked him up once. He needs crutches to walk. It's kind of sad.”

“That is _so_ not the point! I just want you to make the most of what you are!”

“I think _one_ of us is missing the point,” Akko said, frowning, “and usually it would probably be me, but I'm not so sure this time. But thanks, that means a lot.” Before Avery could retort—and she _totally_ had a good retort, and would _absolutely_ have said it—Akko's face brightened up again and she pointed forward. “We're at the ride!”

“Oh!” Avery looked up, wondering what rinky-dink ride Akko could have chosen. And then all the color evacuated her face.

It was the largest ride in the park, and had to be something like a hundred meters on its highest drop. So much for _rinky-dink!_

“You said you wanted something more exciting, right?” Akko said, hands on her hips and apparently oblivious to Avery's sudden change in mood. “Well, this is as exciting as it gets! Come on, let's go!”

And that was what kicked Avery's fear centers into overdrive. “Hang on a sec,” she said. “You want _me_ to go on it with you?”

“Well, I mean, duh.” Akko swept her hand out, showing off the size of the roller coaster. “It's pretty big. You wouldn't be able to watch me the whole time from back here, would you? Come on,” she added, slapping Avery on the back to jolt her forward, “we’ll be together. it'll be fun!”

“ _Fun?_ ” Avery squeaked. “Have you _been on it?_ ”

“Nah, never before. First time for everything, right?”

Significant parts of Avery's mind were screaming that if she went on that roller coaster, it would be her last time for _anything_. “Actually,” she said, stepping back, “I just remembered I need to water my fish at—”

( _Go on the ride._ )

She stopped and frowned. Hang on, since when did the little voice tell her to _do_ things? It was usually too busy telling her _not_ to do things.

( _Well, that wasn't working, now was it? So go on the ride, dummy. You want to get closer to Akko? This is how._ )

“All right,” Avery muttered under her breath, “but if this gets me killed, I blame _you_.” She sucked in a breath, looked Akko in the eye, and forced a smile. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

* * *

“This was the objectively worst idea,” Avery said, as the blood rushed into her head. Not by choice. The angle of the roller coaster's uphill climb didn't leave her circulatory system with other options.

“Feeling excited?” Akko said, next to her. “Bet you won't put your hands up for the drop!”

“ _You'll win that bet!_ ” Avery's hands had a death-grip on the safety bar, and would be immovable by most construction equipment.

“Ten seconds now,” Akko said.

“No, don't count down—”

“Nine. Eight. Seven. Six! Five!”

“Akko, I'm gonna barf—”

“ _Four! Three! Two! One!_ ”

They reached the apex.

And as they started to fall, Akko relinquished her hold on the safety bar and threw her hands up, whooping in sheer delight.

( _That's the difference_ , said the little voice, as Avery screamed and the ground accelerated toward her. _The deal with Akko Kagari is, she throws her hands up._ )

* * *

Somehow, at the end of the day, Avery was still alive. Whether her hair would ever go back into its original shape was another question entirely. One of her hairclips had flown off the second time they'd gone down the big coaster, nevermore to be seen by mortal eyes.

And, to her astonishment, she found she'd do it again.

“Well, shows what _you_ know,” she said, smirking at Mary over the phone. Avery was lying down on her front along her bed, and her phone was propped up on a stand at the end of the bed, showing her roommates.

“Shows what I know?” Mary's expression was confused, as if she didn't know what she knew.

But she _did_ know it, and they both _knew_ it! “ _You_ ,” Avery said, pointing a finger at her phone, “said that the plan would go wrong. But it went _so so right!_ I got to get closer to Akko than you could have ever imagined! That'll teach you to bet against Avery Malcolm.”

“No one bet anything, though.”

“But we _should_ have. In fact,” Avery said, turning her head to the side with dignity, “I am retroactively enforcing a bet about my success for the day, a bet which you have lost! Hmph, I say!”

“I'm happy for you,” Blair said, nudging Mary out of the way to lean closer. “So it went well?”

“Amazingly, exceptionally well!” Avery planted both heels of her hands under her chin, smiling happily. “We rode a bunch of rides together and got ice cream when it got late, and sat together on a bench and talked for a while, and then I flew her home. And basically no one bothered us!”

“That's great!” And Blair's smile did seem earnest enough, but there was... an _edge_ to it that Avery wasn't sure about. “Did you get any good data?”

“Um....” Avery blinked, and thought about the empty note on her phone. _Akko Kagari throws her hands up._ “Not a _lot_ ,” she admitted, briefly burying her chin a little further into her hands. Then she pulled it out and said, beaming, “But this is the exploratory phase, and I'll get another chance tomorrow! We're gonna go to a beach together!”

Blair kept smiling, but it had even more of an edge to it now. “Great. Just one more question.”

“Yyyyes?”

“Was getting a girlfriend part of your plan?”

Avery hadn't been eating or drinking anything, and she still found herself choking. “ _What!?_ ” she stammered.

Mary and Blair stared at her. “Avery,” Mary said, “I don't know if you noticed this, but when you were talking about what you did today, your legs were literally kicking back and forth.” Avery blinked a few times before looking back at the apparently traitorous appendages, which now rested meekly on her pillow as if they hadn't done anything at all.

“That doesn't prove anything whatsoever,” Avery said, turning back to her friends.

( _It kind of does,_ said the little voice.)

That's enough out of you, she thought. “Akko Kagari is my _target_ and my _client_ , and that's all. The plan is proceeding smoothly, albeit after a few _ad hoc_ modifications, no matter what you _naysayers_ say.” She paused. “Which I suppose would be _nay_.”

“I suppose,” Blair repeated.

Avery nodded. “Just because Akko is kind of cute, and really adventurous, and a lot of fun to talk to, and really thankful when I do things for her, and—”

“They're kicking again,” Mary said.

Avery whipped her head around, just in time to confirm it for herself. “Stupid legs!” she seethed, straightening them through sheer force of will! ( _Not like there's another way to straighten your legs._ ) “I will tie you to this bed if I have to!”

“Ooh,” Blair said, a clear ironic sultriness in her voice. “I wonder if Akko would like _that_.”

“ _Gah!_ ” Avery turned back around to glare at her friends. “If you're just going to sit there and impugn my pure, glory-hounding motives, then I am turning off this video call! Good night!”

“G'night,” Mary said, smiling as Avery reached for the End Call button. “But you are _so_ in love with her.”

* * *

“Thanks again for coming to the beach with me, Avery,” Akko said. She was wearing a bikini that left approximately _nothing_ to Avery's active imagination, and lying face-first on a towel in the sand. “By the way, do you mind getting sunscreen on my back?” she added, lifting up a bottle.

“Uh,” Avery said, staring down.

“It's easy! Just take the lotion and rub me all over. Don't be afraid to really push it in deep!”

( _See what I mean?_ said the little voice, as the rest of Avery's fragile mind screamed internally.)

* * *

“Oh my god,” Avery mumbled into the comforter. “I am _so_ in love with her.”

Her two friends nodded over video chat.

“Ugh. What do I _dooooo?_ ”

Mary and Blair looked at each other, and after a few seconds, Mary was the first to speak. “Avery,” she said gently, “you know we're your friends, right? So I'm gonna do my best to support you here.”

“Thanks.”

“But it's gonna be really hard,” Mary continued, mirth clear in her voice, “because this is _really funny_.”

Avery glared at her. “Consider those thanks immediately rescinded.”

“ _This summer_ ,” Mary said, her face abruptly serious as her voice went gravelly. Then she paused, frowning. “No, for a film like this the trailer would sound more like... _this summer_ ,” she repeated, in a voice that was just as deep but much smoother. “ _Avery Malcolm traveled halfway around the world to meet her idol. She was prepared for almost anything._ ”

“She's not my idol!” Avery curled in on herself like a pangolin, if a pangolin could blush like a lighthouse. “Stahp!”

“ _But nothing could prepare her... for looooove. Come see what critic Mary Bergman is calling the most hilarious romantic comedy of the year: Akko Kagari and Avery Malcolm in... High Hopes._ ” After a pause in which Mary wasn't talking, Avery peeked an eye open to see Blair raising an eyebrow at Mary. “What?” Mary said, crossing her arms. “I've got Panic on the brain, okay? Do _you_ have a better title idea?”

“No one would see that stupid movie!” Avery exclaimed, arms crossed.

“I've been watching that stupid movie for the past several days,” Mary said, grinning, “and I am prepared to give it five stars.”

“ _Mary_ ,” Blair said, in a tone that made it clear that the joke was over. Then she looked at Avery with a far gentler expression. “It's not so bad, right? You went there to learn how to be liked by everyone, and, well, you've gotten to be liked by _one_ person. One step at a time, right?”

“I don't _know_ that she likes me back.”

“Of course she does! Akko likes _everyone_.”

“That is not the kind of liking I want her to like me like!” Avery clutched her head in her hands, rolling from side to side on the bed. “Ugh, this is so _frustrating!_ ”

“So,” Blair said, quietly, “you _do_ want her to like you back?”

“Of _course_ I do! But _should I?_ ” Avery slumped back onto the bed.

When no one snapped back to that, Avery let out a low, groaning breath. “The thing is that she's Akko and I'm Avery, and I insulted her the first time I met her, and I only came to Japan to use her, and... there's _no way_ it'd ever work out. Like, even if we got together we'd break up eventually. What's the point?”

Blair started, “You don't know that you'd break up—”

“No, she's onto something here,” Mary interjected.

“Mary! You said you'd be _supportive!_ ”

“I am! Trust me on this.” Mary raised her hand, covering Blair's mouth, and leaned toward the camera. “So you don't think it would last? You might be right. I mean, imagine dating at Luna Nova with _Sucy_ hanging over your shoulders?”

The three of them shared a collective shudder. “Yeah,” Avery said, looking down at the ground. “You see.”

“But does that mean it's not even worth a _shot?_ ”

Avery pursed her lips. “ _Evidently_. What's the point of starting if failure is guaranteed?”

“Because—” Mary groaned. “Okay. Avery, I've shown you my home movies, right. Tell me, how many Oscars do you think they'd win—”

“ _Zero_ ,” Avery said immediately, rolling over in bed.

“Okay, you could have spared my feelings a _little_ there, but yes. Zero. They're bad. I couldn't even keep the camera steady a lot of the time. And the dialogue, yeesh!” Mary grimaced. “But you know what? I'd make them all again. Because I had _fun_ making them.”

“What?” Avery stared at Mary from her upside-down position. “How is that even relevant?”

“Here's how it's relevant, megagenius.” Mary stared at her with a serious, if inverted, expression. “The most unhappy I've ever seen you is when you're getting tunnel vision on how you're going to try to get famous in some far-off future. When are you going to start doing things _now_ , for _now's_ sake?”

* * *

Akko had explained the name of the festival to her, like, three times, and Avery had been too busy staring at her to listen to a word of it. So much for taking notes.

The important thing was that they were walking together along a twilit park path, and color was everywhere: colored paper hanging from trees, lanterns dangling from hooks, and the florid outfits worn by many of the other revelers. For their parts, Avery and Akko were still in street clothes, but they didn't stand out too much, since some of the other tourists were similarly dressed.

“And then they take all the pieces of paper and they float them out on the lake and _burn them_ ,” Akko was saying excitedly, “and it's so cool to watch! And at this location they also release a bunch of floating lanterns, and they are _so much fun_. You have _gotta_ see them!”

“Mm? Yeah.” Avery found herself just smiling as she watched Akko.

“But first you've gotta make your wish!” Akko said, and before Avery knew what was happening, Akko had her by the wrist and was pulling her to a nearby bamboo tree. Now that she was a little closer, Avery could see that the colored papers actually had writing on them, though it was of course in Japanese and therefore indecipherable for her.

Avery glanced down and saw a table at the tree's base, upon which rested piles and piles of blank papers, each with its own piece of string with which to hang it by. “Take one and make a wish!” Akko said, grabbing a red one herself. “I brought a pen, we can share!” Without further ado she skipped to the trunk of the tree, slapped her paper against it, and started writing.

Avery took a purple piece of paper and frowned at it. _A wish...._

“You said they're just gonna burn these?” she said, staring at her blank paper as if it had mysteries waiting to be revealed. “Seems like just a bit of a waste of paper, Akko.”

“But it's _fun!_ What's your wish?”

“Ugh, of course it is.” Avery sighed, then shoved the paper in her pocket. “I'll come up with something later.”

( _But you already know what you want._ )

“Akko?” she asked, as Akko skipped toward a relatively unoccupied branch—only three other pieces of paper hanging from it—and hooked her wish around it. “Can I ask you something?”

“You wanna know what I wished, right?” Akko grinned. “Just read it and you'll see!”

“Not specifically, but sure....” Avery walked around to the red piece of paper, and then scowled. “Haha,” she said, looking at lines of Japanese text. “Utterly uproarious.”

“I'll tell you once you've told me yours. Deal?”

Avery sighed. “Deal. Now—”

“Come on, I've gotta show you the food trucks!”

And Akko took Avery by the hand and led her along the path.

* * *

Now it was nearly midnight. Akko and Avery, against all odds, had managed to claim a bench to themselves, and were staring out over the placid lake and all the stars it reflected.

And Avery was just frowning. She pulled out her empty wish again and stared at it. _What's the point of making a wish if it's just going to burn?_

“Hey,” Akko said, nudging her, and Avery looked up. “This may be kind of a weird question but... did I cut you off?”

“What?”

“When we were talking at the bamboo tree with all the wish paper.”

Avery stared back. “That was... like, five hours ago, Akko.”

“But I totally cut you off, right?” Akko looked her way as intently as Avery was staring back.

“Well....” Avery tried to remember what the topic of conversation had been. When she did, she groaned. “Oh.”

“Oh, what?”

“It's nothing. It's just....”

“ _You can tell meeeeeee_ ,” Akko whined, leaning in.

“OK, _fine!_ ” Something about that whine was _so_ annoying. Avery sat up straight, clenched her eyes shut, and said, “What if I said that I lied about coming here to be your bodyguard?”

There was silence. Avery's eyes stayed clenched shut for a while, but gradually relaxed as a cold feeling poured through her. It was almost comfortable, really. She'd tell the whole selfish truth, this stupid farce would be over, and—

“Well, I guess I'd probably say that I already knew.”

Avery's eyes snapped open. “What?”

Out over the lake, the flying lanterns were starting to go up. Their orange glow lit up Akko’s face as Avery stared at her. “Yeah, so your friend Blair asked my friend Lotte, and Lotte told me about it. But Blair told Lotte, who told me,” said Akko, who was holding up her fingers to keep track of who was who, “that _you_ were coming to find out how I managed to be famous.” She grinned. “Did you figure it out?”

“No!” Avery groaned. “And if you knew the whole time, then why stick around me?”

“Well....” Akko shrugged. “Technically I called Lotte _after_ that first night and _then_ Lotte asked Blair again and then Blair told her who told—”

“ _Akko_ , please.”

“The point is,” Akko said, putting her hand on Avery's—and oh, how Avery's nervous system _thrilled_ at that innocuous point of contact, “that maybe your reasons were dumb, but you were actually really nice to me, and you saved me from those reporters. And we’re having a lot of fun together. And I'm....” Akko blushed, and looked away. “I'm really glad you're here, Avery.”

Avery stared at her.

( _Do it now or you'll regret it forever._ )

And for once, she decided to listen to the little voice. “Akko,” she said, her voice firm, “look at me again.”

And as Akko did so, her mouth moving to form a question, Avery leaned in and kissed her on the lips.

It was quick. It was only as much as she dared. But it set Avery's skin on fire at the point of contact, and it felt like the festival's scheduled fireworks were going off early for her.

Akko stared at her, a thousand floating lights reflected in her eyes.

Avery forced herself to talk. “This isn't gonna work. Not forever. But while....” She gulped. “While we're here, right now, do you wanna... be more than just friends?”

Somehow, despite how wide they already were, Akko's eyes found a way to widen further. And then she scooped Avery up in a tight hug so hard that it left Avery seriously worried about physical injury. “I would _love_ to be more than just friends with you,” she said into Avery's ear. Then she let go, but only so she could beam as bright as the lanterns, and then leaned in for a second, more prolonged kiss, where each of them put a hand up by the other's ear.

When Akko let go, she frowned, and for a horrible moment Avery wondered if she'd done something wrong—but then Akko was leaning down and saying, “Your wish!” Apparently it had fallen out of Avery's pocket at some point. Akko's voice sounded kind of disappointed as she picked it back up, but to be fair, the paper was still blank. “You still don't know what you want?”

Avery smiled. “You know what? Let me borrow your pen.”

Akko seemed a little confused, but pulled the pen from her pocket regardless. Avery took it and the paper from her hands, placed the paper on her lap, and wrote carefully in the light of the lamps:

_I hope Akko and I are happy together in the time we have._

Akko, who had been watching over her shoulder, gasped. “ _No way_.”

Avery looked at her. “What?”

“That's what I wrote too! What are the odds?”

Avery laughed along with her. “So, if I understand this correctly, there's a certain tradition that goes along with the wish?” she said, pulling out her wand as she held up the paper. “ _Adcaelum._ ”

The paper, struck by the little jet of light from her wand, started rising forward and upward, floating over the lake. “Wanna do the honors?” Avery said, passing the wand to Akko.

“What? Oh, yeah!” Akko pointed the wand at the floating paper and cried, “ _Exustio!_ ”

When the ray of orange light struck the paper, it burned. And before long, Avery knew, it would be consumed, and gone entirely.

But in the meantime, what a lovely light it gave.

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a gift for Tumblr user [Pantry-Demon](https://p4ntry-d3m0n.tumblr.com/). Merry Christmas, Pan!
> 
> Special thanks to [Hikarilie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hikarilie/works) for prereading this! Check out their fics, because they’re good!


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